


A Coat Of Stars And Night

by Fervidflowering



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 09:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13878225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fervidflowering/pseuds/Fervidflowering
Summary: T'Challa has a promise to keep.





	1. A Promise

He hears the squelch as N’Jadaka pulls the blade out of his chest. 

There is still work to be done. T’Challa, as the sun sets, carries his cousin back to the labs, up the tower, and into a coffin meant not for bodies. Shuri finds him after their cousin’s body is sealed up and calls him up to the ground. The Border Tribe looks shamed, the Dora Milaje smaller than before, and the Jabariland army cautious.

And Nakia - Nakia who takes him aside and informs him what has happened during his fight with N’Jadaka - looks tired. She leans more on her right leg, is covered in grass stains, and when he raises his hand to steady her before she leans too far over she does not realize it. 

He sees N’Jadaka grip the blade protruding from his chest. 

There is still work to be done. He thanks M’Baku and the Jabariland warriors for their assistance, offers to house them in the palace for the night and to treat their wounded. M’Baku takes his offered hand and accepts. 

He does not proclaim any decision about the Border Tribe. His only speech to them is that they should return home if they are not grievously injured, the rest will be treated in the labs. W’Kabi does not meet his eyes and T’Challa is not sure what he expected out of his friend. It hurts him - another slash from N’Jadaka across his chest. 

He looks to Okoye. And when he sees the tears in her eyes, they creep up upon his eyes as well. There is no need to speak beyond a thank you in the shape of the salute. A few tears fall as the group disbands. Okoye sends the most injured Dora to the infirmary along with the Border Tribe and Jabariland warriors. A few lightly injured Dora escort them. 

He hears N’Jadaka fall to the ground beside him. 

There is still work to be done. Guards are sent to deal with the wreckage of those who would have brought weapons beyond Wakanda’s borders. Someone asks about what the War Dogs should be told and while he says something, officially retracts their orders, he could not repeat verbatim what exactly he told them. M’Baku tells him his mother will meet them on the morrow. Someone asks about the box T’Challa had fiddled with. Shuri heads to the infirmary. Nakia stands at his side, hand seeking his, and leads him to a place to sit. She reaches up to hold the side of his face in her hand.

“You need to rest, T’Challa.” Her eyes rove his face and he leans further into the palm of her hand. She has always had him there. 

“I need to bury him.” 

“Who?”

“N’Jadaka. Erik.” There is no change in her except the slightest tension appearing in her shoulders and the straightening of her neck. No one would be able to tell. Except he can. He’s always seen the smallest of changes in her. 

“You can do that tomorrow. We can put him in the morgue for now.” Her palm still cups his cheek and her thumb brushes just below his eye. 

He hears N’Jadaka give his last wish. 

‘Bury me at sea.’ “I do not think-” He places his hand over hers and draws it away. He does not let her go. “- I can wait with this, Nakia. I made a promise.”

“T’Challa, no one would expect you to dig a place for him right now.” Her thumb rubs his knuckles since it can no longer reach his cheek. 

“There is no need.” Her thumb stills. “He wanted to be buried at sea. I can at least give him that.” His eyes are on their hands. A hope he won’t look at for another couple hours settles at the base of his throat. 

They lift up in a hovercraft a few minutes later. Himself, Nakia, and the crate where his cousin lies, cooling. 

He sees tears fall down N’Jadaka’s face. He thinks that one at least is just his mind playing tricks on him.


	2. Flying

Bast’s pelt covers the world, the stars of her coat winking down at Nakia as she navigates the aircraft over the clouds. Here at the helm, with her toes prickling at this cross legged position, she watches the sky and the clouds roll out before her. The moon watches them, lighting their path. For a moment, Nakia feels like she can breathe. 

Then she remembers T’Challa sits behind her, mourning for his would-be killer. 

And she cannot understand. T’Challa is good and decent and perhaps that should be reason enough that he mourns his dead cousin, a man who would have seen T’Challa’s head mounted on a stick if he was given an opportunity. Anger sits within her rib cage, stealing the breath from her lungs, while grief seems to pour over his shoulders just a few feet away. 

She ponders his grief - turns it over in her mind’s hands and examines what she knows of the two men - as they fly over Kenya. 

T’Challa, meanwhile, sits next to N’Jadaka’s coffin - a reused storage bin, claimed in haste - with his elbows on his knees. Two deaths within the span of two weeks. Both of them his family, blood relations. He prays to Bast that his mother and sister are safe in Wakanda. There is an energy just below his promise to N’Jadaka that he will return only to find his sister dead and his mother next. He squeezes his eyes tight, tries to push the thought out of his mind, and feels a tear fall down his face. 

He will need to rest. 

But not yet.


	3. In Another World

In another world, T’Chaka breaks with tradition for a child. 

In another world, the Dora Milaje assist the king in carrying a boy into their ship. 

In another world, Zuri, son of Badu, holds the son of a man he called friend and apologizes so much he does not know what the words mean by the time they arrive in Wakanda. 

In another world, T’Chaka brings a boy home. He grows up with T’Challa and never loses his accent. He goes by Erik and N’Jadaka and Heyyou. He remembers his father when he sees that sunset behind the mountains of Wakanda and because here it is okay to cry and he has seen Uncle, T’Challa, W’Kabi, and even M’Baku - when he tripped over a rock he’d thrown in his path - cry, the boy cries with the sunset. With the ghost of his father. The ghost of his mother.

The ghost of what might have been. 

In another world.

In this world, T’Challa stands beside the makeshift casket wherein rests his cousin and drills holes at the top and the bottom. 

In this world, T’Challa seals that casket himself and - with Nakia’s help - pushes it towards the opening in the ship’s floor. 

In this world, T’Challa sends another prayer to Bast for his cousin as the coffin sinks below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Buried out at sea. 

In this world, Nakia flies the pair of them home as T’Challa mourns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The crate/makeshift casket is biodegradable because come on, do you really think Wakanda doesn't have the technology to make everything biodegradable and healthy for the earth?
> 
> And I think here ends the little triptych of Erik getting the burial he wanted. Next! Something new! And hopefully not sad.


End file.
